Following up on the week - Poilievre, Canada, America

I have run out of time to do much of a blog tonight, so here are just a few follow-ups on this week's many stories.

First, some good columns to ponder:

Scrimshaw Unscripted - Evan Scrimshaw
Carney’s Speeches A Political Dagger To Poilievre
On Davos, Quebec City, And Poilievre

Routine Proceedings - Dale Smith Roundup: The domestic speech and the response
The Line -Matt Gurney
We should probably stop disarming our future armed resistance
We cannot confiscate civilian firearms and plan a guerilla campaign at the same time. Pick a lane.

Wesley Wark’s National Security and Intelligence Newsletter
Trump’s lowest depths
Or, have you no sense of decency

Doomsday Scenario - Garrett Graff
Watching A Superpower Die By Suicide
This is one of the wildest moments in all of the modern 400-year history of nation-states and geopolitics.

Need to Know by David Rothkopf
Davos Was the Beginning of the End for Trump
It's all downhill for here for the America's aging mad king

Two from The Concis - Shankar Narayan:
The Mother of All Trump U-Turns
The Davos snub, Starmer’s defiance, Operation Arctic Endurance — and a few more.
and
Why the West Walked Away from Trump’s Board of Peace
Because This Was Never a Board of Peace

Next, a few good social media posts that I also thought made useful points:

Pierre Poilievre was uncharacteristically silent for two days after Mark Carney's big speech in Davos. When he finally opened his mouth, he confirmed just how far out of his political and intellectual depth he is right now. #cdnpoli www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/23/o...

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— Max Fawcett (@maxfawcett.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 12:18 PM

I can't quite get over how many Facebook posts I have seen that commend PM Carney's speech at WEF and claim support for him. These are conservatives who loudly supported Poilievre in the election and loudly mourned Charlie Kirk. A shift has occurred.

— Kari Raymer Bishop 🇨🇦 (@kariraymerbishop.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 9:43 PM

With all the talk about Trump backing down on Greenland but branding Minnesota protestors as domestic terrorists, it was interesting to see that the US Defense department has just revised America's National Defense Strategy to focus on "homeland threats" instead of China. Strikes me as odd to release such a document at 7 pm on a Friday, when a major storm is arriving -almost like they don't want to try to explain why they want to start wars against Cuba and Columbia - and they still haven't given up on Greenland either.

Trump’s “National Defense Strategy” was released today. This is what it had to say about Canada: a not-so-veiled threat if we don’t toe the Trumpist line. The gulf widens and every day the threats - both overt and covert - increase. We can never trust the US to take Canada’s interests to heart in the slightest. I think Ottawa is coming to this realization, but I still fear that there are some Canadians who haven’t come to this conclusion. To them, this is a passing thing or is overblown by the media. They cannot conceive of our “best friends” as an adversary. But they are.

- Black Cloud Six

Read on Substack

Trump's Tantrum: New U.S. Defence Strategy promises action if Canada doesn’t act in America's interests #cdnpoli

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— Andy Pinsent (@andypinsent.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 11:55 PM

Next, all of Canada is sickened over Trump's insults to our soldiers who died fighting the Taliban on behaf of the US.

The whole world is furious about these lies.

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— Cathie from Canada🍁 (@cathiecanada.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 4:56 PM

As a vet of the American war in Afghanistan, I’m incandescently angry at this. Sadly, I’ve encountered this before. The dismissive, “you’re not good enough“, attitude from Americans. It was their war. I lost a friend & had another very, very severely wounded fighting an American war. And now for a US president to spout bullshit like this is too much. Canada spent blood and treasure fighting alongside the US. Not because we had to, but because we thought it was the right thing to do. We were obviously wrong.

- Black Cloud Six

Read on Substack

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— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 8:56 PM

Exactly 24 hours apart.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 6:52 PM

When I first heard of this Minnesota Strike idea, I wasn't sure it would work. But Liam Ramos galvanazed the nation and Minnesota turned out in spite of very cold weather.

Drone footage showing the sprawling sea of people that came out in subzero temperatures for the Ice Out General Strike Minnesota, on the 23rd of January, 2026.

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— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 8:40 PM

TODAY, Friday January 23rd, 2026: We are ALL residents of Minnesota. We ALL want #ICE_OutForGOOD 🚫 🧊 Also: #ICE_OUT4ReneeGood 💔

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— Mark Hamill (@markhamillofficial.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 2:03 AM

And the pastors have stepped up:

www.mprnews.org/live-updates

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— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 1:42 PM

I guess the US healthcare plan is for everyone to die early. They withdrew from WHO yesterday:

WHO removing Us Flag

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— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) January 23, 2026 at 3:45 PM

I thought Mengele was dead, but I guess not:

RFK Jr. appointee Kirk Milhoan has just clearly stated, out loud, that he wants to experiment on the people of the United States by seeing what happens as vaccination coverage plummets and infectious diseases spread.

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— Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD (@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 1:47 PM

And Trump's Board of Peace is ridiculous:

BOARD OF PEACE - Season 1

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 11:13 PM